She Must Be My Daughter
by Corelli Sonatas
Summary: Vader summons Princess Leia for an interrogation, but it turns out that his guest stirs deeper emotions in him than imagined.
1. Interrogation Gone Astray

"The Princess, Lord Vader."

Chills charged through the Sith Lord's body, which - of which Vader was well aware - had been for almost twenty years concealed by a much stronger, mechanical exterior. He was on edge right now, in what should have been his comfortable, securely guarded chambers; but _her_ entrance of such boldness reminded him harshly of Anakin.

His former semblance, a Jedi and a husband...and a father.

"She is here for the private interrogation, milord," announced Grand Moff Tarkin, almost as if to wake Vader from his slight daydream. Admonishing himself internally, Vader confirmed, "Bring her to me."

Seconds of shuffling feet and the shutting of automatic doors soon devolved into soundless moments, during which the newcomer stood with her chin up, proud yet unamused by her imprisonment.

Vader could not bear the lifeless air. "I know there is much you still have to tell me, Princess. Now we are alone, you will be more inclined to inform me of the Rebel Alliance's plans."

"Then you presume I am too weak to withstand the Empire's manipulative ways," answered Leia. She descended the short staircase and met Lord Vader directly before him, his repetitive breaths picking up pace just slightly. The Princess smiled at him bravely. "You do not frighten me, Lord Vader. The Alliance is my purpose, my life. So it is for all of us. Therefore your forces -"

"I did not request your presence in order to hear you talk of the Rebels' aimless schemes," cut in Vader anxiously. Something about the young woman's eyes was painfully familiar to him. "You will hear my inquiries and will answer them concisely."

She bit her lip.

"Very well, then. Who has sent you to be a spy for the Alliance, and what do you seek that is here on the Emperor's new battle station?"

Hands falling to her sides in feigned relaxation, the Princess replied simply, "I am here because the Alliance wanted me here. And what I need is nothing which would incur damage upon the civil beings of this galaxy, as your Imperial friends have done."

"You will learn, Princess, that the Emperor does not make _friends_ with those who serve the Empire." Vader had more to criticize about the Princess' speech, but he wanted to hear how she would respond next. She _intrigued_ him.

Leia would not back down. "Clearly not, when his and your objective is to strip peaceful peoples of their freedom, of their hope -"

"You know nothing!" Vader knew this voice he heard; it was logical, thoughtful, and unbearably resemblant of a woman whose allegiance to him had been altered many years ago: or so he remembered. _Padmé is dead, his memory reminded him. She is gone, and so is our..._

Wrapped and connected to wires and cables that controlled almost all of his physical actions, Darth Vader feared to recall a time at which human form had taken his pitiful semblance. When he had last loved, his wife and master had betrayed him. When he had last imagined the prospect of a child - his and Padmé's very own - Anakin Skywalker had still been alive.

 _Everything has changed,_ thought Vader to himself, _and all is as it should be._

He thought this until the nineteen year-old imparted an opinion that he wanted not to hear:

"What I _do_ know is how your orders to cause misery to many civilizations, to destroy the Senate that this galaxy had to speak freely for itself... Do you think I know _nothing_ of your ways?"

She was stabbing at his heart...and for years, he'd thought no such organ existed in what was left of his battered body. The only woman whom he'd ever felt inferior to had been Padmé, but he was rather finished with resurrecting figments of such a past. Right now, however, Vader's worst nightmare was before him (or so it seemed to the Sith Lord, because he merely felt a closeness to this headstrong princess).

It was Vader's turn to argue. "To you, Princess, circumstances do not exist. The Emperor has reason, but it is those like _you_ who are unwilling to see it."

"Lord Vader," began the younger, having paused to compile her strength, "only you and the Emperor know what, precisely, is in store for the future. I hope that, in time, you realize what heartbreak you're causing to the peoples whose economies you deflate." Leia turned for the door - a risk nonetheless, though she was brave enough to leave on her account - but Vader allowed her a few dozen steps.

Then, suddenly, "Wait!"

The Princess turned casually, having not sensed anything menacing about Vader's voice. In fact, she was secretly astonished by his tone of desperation, of longing. It was almost as if Darth Vader were, for that fleeting moment, a different person.

His awkwardly-patterned breathing was the only sound in the chamber while both Leia and Vader stared at each other, anticipating for one another to speak first. Just when Leia thought it acceptable to turn and leave, Vader told her, "Stay."

 _Can this be Padmé's child?_ wondered the man inside him. The Princess wouldn't have known it, but Vader was tearing up inside. _This must be... She must have been born before Padmé died. And look at how..._

He wanted to finish his thought with _how beautiful she is,_ but Vader was so fixated upon the young woman whom he was convinced to be his daughter; and so he merely inhaled mechanically and exhaled in kind, overwhelmed beyond measure.

Finally, he asked, "Who is your mother?"

Leia was taken aback. "I beg your pardon?"

"Your mother," repeated Vader. "Who is she?"

"I am from Alderaan. That is all you should dare to know."

"But..." Vader couldn't find the words. He felt so out of place, out of character, that his whole being resisted every inch it took in this foreign direction toward regular conversation. "Your eyes," he finally blurted, the low, monotone voice practically breaking down. "Whose are you?"

Offended immediately, Leia retorted, "Of all people, Lord Vader, you are the last one I'd involve in my personal -"

"Answer me!" The Sith Lord had returned in a matter of seconds, the source of his reversion purely that he had become angry over something of his past: love. He remembered how dearly he'd loved Padmé, and what she had meant to him...what she _still_ meant to him. And this princess in his midst - perhaps the most striking woman he'd acknowledged since Padmé - she was his.

 _She has to be,_ decided Vader. "What is your age?" he pressed, ignoring the woman's previous request.

"It would be nothing with which to concern you," assured Leia.

"Nineteen years?" wondered Vader. The Princess froze.

The two were quietly studying one another, as if for the first time. Leia couldn't process Vader's accuracy - she figured he knew more about her somehow, which she figured was the reason for his inability to interrogate her. Vader, too, sensed an understanding in her. But he shortly forgot such a thing.

"How dare you try to drive personal matters into this," exclaimed Leia, her voice now shattering. "When my father and the Alliance hear -"

"Your father?" interrupted Vader, interested in whom she believed such a person to be. Leia nodded simply.

"Yes. Have you not heard of Bail Organa of Alderaan?"

Every bit of hope that had clung to the dark-cloaked figure had dwindled away. He doubted his relation to this being, and wanted nothing else to do with her. He hated this "Organa" whom she called her father, also, but above all, he was furious with himself for having attached temporarily to the Princess. _I sensed that she had the Force in her,_ Vader recalled. _I was wrong._

After dismissing Leia from his chamber, Vader sent for Tarkin immediately.

"Yes, Lord Vader?"

"I want you to bring her back to me, but first, have your men set the coordinates for Alderaan."


	2. Old Companions, Thwarted Semblances

Minutes later, Vader resorted to the usage of torture in order to extract all possible information from the Princess' resistant mind. This time, he had a spherical droid with him, a tool that he had assured himself would make for a brief and unemotional procedure (at least, for him).

But Leia had borne the pain and tears, the latter of which hadn't even emerged from crying. The young woman had purely been silent. Cringing, of course, but peaceful.

And this lack of reaction disturbed Vader above all.

He felt his brutality had been almost uncalled for, that nothing had been justified about his droid-driven pressure upon the Princess for her information. Presently the Sith Lord stormed through the hallway, after exiting the cell in which he had interrogated her.

Then someone got in the way.

It was strange enough for Vader to encounter a normal-appearing man - _could he be a Jedi?_ wondered the memory-short man in the mask - at one of the Death Star's most vital power plants.

Too suddenly did Vader recall and process this intruder, that he practically bellowed, "Obi-Wan?"

The other froze - he had already noticed the cloaked Sith's spotting of him - and asked the same question over and over again in his mind: _So this is him... My former Padawan learner, the Chosen One...?_

Both figures were, for a moment, but statues to one another. Neither could bring himself to conclusion; rather, everything they had known, thought about, most desired... All had been wiped out from their memories at the sight of one another. It was a frightening dive into the dark age for Ben as for Vader, except one of them was recognizable.

And so Kenobi, shifting his body so as to stand tall before this dissimilar yet incredibly familiar being, spoke. "At last."

"You will not get away this time, Obi-Wan. Do not think time has changed the course of the Emperor's scheme to be rid of all Jedi..." Vader could not properly finish, because his heart was still affecting every breath he took. Anakin was lurking inside him, craving an answer that had everything to do with that resilient princess. And even before he felt a care for Leia, the woman of his past - his former _wife_ \- radiated guilt and anger throughout his mechanical body.

"You can do away with me later, Anakin," assured the aged Jedi Master, "only right now my cause is righteous and in need of completion." His speech treacherously reminded Vader of the Master whose words had swayed Padmé in a direction far from him. Vader hated this moment.

It seemed like a reunion of their time on Mustafar.

"Do not underestimate my power, nor the Emperor's battle station," advised Vader quietly. "No Jedi can disarm it, as no enemy -"

"What were you doing in that cell down the hall?" questioned Ben quickly, curiosity a definite priority. Anakin's threatening words were a thing of the past to him. Kenobi was old now; little bothered him.

"I am surprised that you must ask. We are currently headed for Alderaan, the planet this Princess claims to call home."

"I sense that she's left an impression on you," concluded Obi-Wan. "What about her sets you on edge?"

"You are no longer my master, Obi-Wan. I give orders and answers of my own accord." But Vader was, in fact, inclined to answer his question. He added, "It seems you know who she is after all."

"She is not someone with whom to concern yourself," the Jedi warned. "For her sake, please -"

"Simply because you beseech me not to harm her does not indicate -"

"Anakin, I implore you!"

"Such disregard you hold for me," scolded Vader, "that you cannot call me by my true name."

"Which is Anakin. And you will _not_ touch the Princess further -"

"Silence," demanded the Sith Lord firmly. "Now, you will answer my question, as I require it for good reason. And I shall put an end to your life, as you suggested, Obi-Wan; only later. Tell me," continued Vader, drawing nearer toward Obi-Wan and the generators surrounding him. "Did...the woman whose name I shall not present...did she live through..."

Having first assumed he'd meant Padmé, but then after reconsidering, he answered, "Through the birth? Yes," his tone of voice softer and calmer than Vader liked. Immediately the Sith Lord regained his intimidating posture and, swiftly, turned for the hallway.

As he walked, he announced to Obi-Wan, "The Princess is not a native of Alderaan."

"No," breathed Obi-Wan, his fear rising now that he understood Anakin's full comprehension of the evidence withdrawn. "But she has nothing to do with you, I promise."

"Lies," hissed Vader through his mask, the harshness of his tone appealing very much to him. He was not Anakin Skywalker, not at all, but that did not mean he had no claim of his daughter. "You know she is my child. You must have seen her... She wears Padmé's beauty."

"Then you must protect her since she reminds you of the past, even while she is _not_ yours," requested Obi-Wan, trying ever still to thwart the Sith Lord's thoughts about Leia. _Dangerous information at the disposal of a Sith is never acceptable,_ thought the Jedi Master.

But there was still something of interest that Anakin had confessed.

 _He is attached to the Princess through Padmé. He still knows love..._

"I shall find _you_ in the main hanger in due time, Obi-Wan," echoed the monotone voice which Vader carried with him, through the hallway and away from the old man whose fascination had not left him. _Leia is in danger,_ he repeated constantly in his head. _Luke and that smuggler had better be on their way._


	3. After Alderaan

Vader observed the destruction he had caused with pride: where Alderaan used to stand, nothingness reigned over the particles and ghastly remnants that floated in the surrounding atmosphere. And while others under Vader's authority had thought the destruction to be a necessary tactic with which to open the Princess' mouth, the self-proclaimed father had different intentions.

 _At last,_ thought Vader, _the Princess is no longer bound to her unnatural guardians. She is mine, and mine alone -_

The very same young woman was in his midst presently; she held a weakening stance at the edge of the Death Star, behind the window that had shielded her from committing an act that would have been her sacrifice for her planet.

Leia felt like dying. Only she would have preferred to have quit breathing _before_ her eyes had watched the innocent murder of more people than she would have ever known.

And she was, above all, angry.

Angry with her life, with the damned Empire and the malevolent, unfeeling Darth Vader. Leia had no family now, as far as she knew; she yearned to be peacefully resting on a planet that no longer smiled - _existed_ \- in the intimidating galaxy.

"You must face the truth."

It was Vader, his command simultaneously piercing and energizing her to lash out at the Sith Lord. She growled in a low voice to her enemy, "Truth is seldom necessary."

 _She will hear the truth, no matter what her feelings are,_ decided Vader; he wanted to _tell_ her, to surprise her for once, to break her. And it was not simply her fortitude that bothered him. She was on _Obi-Wan's_ side, and this had infuriated him passionately. "It is unwise to be ignorant of the truth. You veil yourself from a greater destiny -"

"I don't want to hear any more from you," snapped Leia, turning to face Vader. "I deserve no more interrogations, after what you've done."

Her allegation frustrated Vader. "Do you sense nothing of our presences in this room? Your loyalty to the Alliance betrays your thirst for vengeance."

"On the contrary," the Princess replied coldly, "What destruction the Empire has caused can only invite me to seek vengeance."

Vader had begun to lose hope. "Then you cannot feel the Force."

"The Force?" shot Leia. "I am not a Jedi. And I forbid you to speak to me."

"What happened to your real mother and father?" pressed the Sith. "Dead after your birth?"

"I refuse to answer you -"

Suddenly the sliding door exposed the secrecy of their conversation, and in came an admiral. "Lord Vader, the Emperor requests that you join him in his quarters."

"Tell him I will be there," instructed Vader. The admiral nodded and quickly exited the room. Vader returned his gaze toward the black abyss outside the Death Star. "Time is not in favor of the Rebel Alliance, Princess. Soon, should the Rebels refuse to surrender, what happened today to Alderaan -"

"You wouldn't dare to say that name," cut in Leia, stepping a foot closer to the center of the room, where Vader was statue-like and patient. "The least you could do now is to free me from this hellish place your emperor has created."

"He is _your_ emperor, too," reminded the Sith Lord admonishingly, "and I hope you learn to respect those who know the way to peace."

 _"What_ peace?" challenged the Princess, chuckling as she neared Vader yet a little more. "Shutting down billions of lives with explosive-carrying battle stations is the Emperor's plan for _peace?"_

Leia could not bear it anymore; her hands would not clench - as they should have done, for the bones in her body repelled this horrible robot-man. _He's not a man at all,_ she realized, _no matter how his voice sounds, no matter how his limbs appear._

She was glaring straight at him, her father (although she still did not know this), and Vader merely looked back at her, unbiased and without empathy. He recognized the form of her eyes above a nose he knew to be Padmé's, and the cheeks and the lips and the hair - he ached at this observation in particular - were all Padmé's also, all so _familiar_ to Vader that he thought for a moment that he was still Anakin.

But as Leia continued in her callous and unwelcoming gaze upon the cloaked figure, Vader returned to his thoughts of greed. _Her unnatural parents from Alderaan are dead. My present work is complete._

Then, once Vader had configured his intelligent mind in order to formulate a solution, he announced proudly to the Princess, "You will have your wish. Should anyone come to rescue you, I alone will not order any direct restraints. Return to your cell."

The tone he utilized could very well have been "Go to your room", but such a phrase was a part of an imaginary world - at least to Darth Vader née Anakin Skywalker - and so he thought nothing of it as his child (still he thought there was only one) exited the room obediently, albeit of her own will to get away from the man who had altered her life significantly.


	4. Knowledge of Evil

She had never felt so frozen as she did here: here, at the designated battle arena for war; here, in a darkness of blinding ice and snow that cursed her human body for resisting the temptation of dropping almost entirely in temperature. But above all this, Leia Organa was lonely.

She had escaped the clutches of her less-than-companion, Captain Han Solo.

Or, as she preferred to title him, the stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder.

Exactly why she had turned away from those who had explained to her that if she didn't get to a transport she would be dead, the woman could not comprehend. She knew Darth Vader had landed on the planet Hoth, and somehow this was a comforting thought to her. Something about his contrary semblance, about his mercilessness and sharp attitude was so intriguing to her. And Leia was more than certain that - if she were, right then, to approach and even appear to him - he would hold her hostage once again.

The idea sounded sweetly perfect to her.

As the ex-Princess trudged through the collapsing Rebel Base, her imaginings brought motivation to her in the midst of the harsh surroundings. Prospects of being trapped again, free to hold thoughts and plans that were not for the Alliance to hear at a meeting later… All this Leia dreamed with pleasure. But Vader himself was at the forefront of her musings.

He had answers. And she craved them.

Some stormtroopers were blasting away in the near distance, and Leia prayed that they wouldn't charge at her on account of Vader's orders. A wall came crumbling down to her left, surprising Leia so that she made an exclamation.

In moments, Vader's vilifying voice sounded: "I have sensed your presence since I landed."

He hadn't bothered to utter her name, and yet Leia took his greeting to be polite enough. She stepped forth from the wall that had separated her and the Sith Lord, then pursed her lips before announcing, "Then we are both in agreement of a much-needed discussion."

"Much about you has changed," observed Vader, noticing primarily the age in her face but sensing a maturity beyond which he had thought her to be capable. "The Rebels have been tested, and most of them failed. I see you are still standing, unscathed."

"Not quite so," answered the younger, "but never mind that. You owe me information, Vader. I wish to leave on your transport."

Not the least bit stunned, Vader pressed her, "What would you like to know? History has passed my eyes long enough."

His conversational tone disconcerted Leia, whereupon she suggested, "We should be leaving. This base your lot has destroyed won't hold us for much longer."

"Very well. Commander, take her inside." Two stormtroopers on either sides of Vader obeyed, lining up behind Leia as she proceeded to the inside of the ship.

…

"You knew my parents, did you not?"

The abrupt question stabbed at Vader internally. _She speaks of Padm_ _é_ _, of Anakin._ "What brings your mind to such a conclusion? Have you sensed it?"

Underneath the table at which they had gathered, Leia played with the torn hem on her clothing. "I don't know what you mean. You obviously knew them, since your thoughts were upon my 'dead parents', as you put it."

"Your mother was once a senator." He only had to mention Anakin's late wife in order to inspire the slightest anger in him. "Of Naboo."

"Her name?" urged Leia, confused ever still.

"I cannot… That name is one I wish not to give. She was…in her last moments…" He so sinfully wanted to finish with "a traitor", but Vader's accompaniment completed the sentence for him, albeit tentatively:

"Taken ill?"

"No."

"Then what happened to her? And what about my father? What happened to him?"

 _This child of mine has no knowledge,_ thought Vader. A part of him yearned to tell everything to her, as long as he was to keep her forever in his custody and never to let her go. But for some reason which the unnaturally concerned Sith Lord could not understand, he wished not to revel his former identity. "Your father was killed by the late Obi-Wan Kenobi. You know of him."

At this declaration, Leia found herself unable to believe Vader. "That can't be… Obi-Wan was a friend of my father. I can't believe you." She was neither upset with Vader nor underwhelmed; in fact, she hated the mere fact that this tyrant had planted such an idea in her head. "Obi-Wan thought fondly of my mother. Why would he…?"

"Now you see," Vader hummed in a hypnotic voice. "Obi-Wan and the other Jedi were never a peaceful people. If you see it as I do, perhaps you will consider joining the Emperor in service to him."

"How dare you offer such a horrid -"

"If you would forget your unforgiveable allegiance to the Rebel Alliance and concentrate on your destiny," demanded Vader, his body emerging from its seat across from the woman. "You may not know it, but the Dark Side of the Force has proved itself strong in your family. Your father had that strength -"

"You're wrong!" countered Leia, her energy building far too quickly for her to control. The detestation she had for the Sith Lord before her had escalated within minutes, and instantly she cursed herself for having thought his company to be beneficial to her thirst for knowledge. "I demand to be sent away from here."

"That can be arranged, by me," bellowed Vader.


	5. Swapping Places and Desires

The moment she did it, she regretted it: sneaking away from the small room into which Vader had stowed her; wandering incessantly in every direction of the Star Destroyer (they had long since boarded it, much to Leia's disappointment), seeking the Sith Lord as if he were her sanity.

And then she saw it.

The most disturbing device the ex-Princess had ever beheld - aside from the Death Star, of course - encompassed Vader and removed from his head that intimidating, polished, black helmet. As the baldness of the head became exposed, Leia felt the strain in her eyelids as she stared, wide-eyed. Perhaps, to the young woman, the war hadn't been the most unbelievable thing yet; but _this…_

How had such damage been done? What trouble had Vader made to deserve it?

These queries would soon be answered: the unveiled man of great power turned the chair in which he sat to discover Leia - as he sensed - at the doorframe. For the minutest second, Vader was ashamed of his naked, bald, battered head.

She continued to gape at he who was her father.

Finally, a sentence from Vader: "What so unnerves you?"

Immediately hearing the ghastly difference in his voice, Leia took a slight step backward. _This is not happening,_ she thought incredulously. _Why do I feel so…pitiful of him?_

And pity was not all. Leia practically _sensed_ a feeling of desperation, but for what? She could not know.

 _Maybe,_ she mused, _what Vader believed of me was true._ "Nothing," spoke the woman - albeit she felt like a child - and counted the seconds between her pause and the _other one's_ next words.

She had forgotten his name.

By this time, Vader had learned from his master that another was his offspring; and so he had lost all faith in the mere nuisance before him. "You must leave here, or my men will have you pay for your mischief."

"Where did you earn those scars?" wondered Leia, now feeling a change in her own tune; for it was _she,_ now, who craved answers: _she_ who, by the very look upon this tyrannical Sith Lord, had transformed her opinions by considerable margins.

First: she thought him to be more of a man. Second: his presence seemed so forlorn, as if he were truly the only being of his kind.

And third: she believed he had been telling the truth about their connection, one Leia had vowed to ignore, to curse, to cast out from her memory.

Vader would not answer her last question, and instead programmed for the machine to reapply his mask. He let out a satisfied breath as the helmet clicked into place; it was his form of comfort, of concealment from all that which had been the prelude to his far more comfortable life as a wielder of the Dark Side's delicious powers. Leia was still there, gazing upon him with her dark-brown eyes, and he cowered internally at this.

"I have no need for you," Vader announced to her. "Bespin is the next landing; you will be released there."

"Leia."

"What?" he bellowed, his attention suddenly fixed back again upon his unwanted companion. Leia held her stone-cold glare upon him.

"My name. You fail to mention it every time, so I thought -"

"Silence; your name is of no value to me." This shut Leia up, but she was hurt by it. Enough of her emotions had already been channeled toward connecting with this man of dual-personas, that now anger and fear came upon her. The anger deriving from a lack of response from Vader; and the fear stirring as she began to recognize how dangerous her situation was, both during her absence from the Rebel Alliance and after they learned what had happened.

Even still, Leia was persistent. "You believed me at one time to be of some relation to you. Why has that become a mere notion to you now? Vader, answer me: who _were_ my parents by birth?"

"That…" responded the other, his right hand clasping the shiny silver handle of a weapon that meant more than any child of Vader's (he thought this at that moment) could ever be to him. "…is a matter of perspective."


	6. Betrayal and the Ghost

The Princess and the scoundrel were regretful of their particular choice of a friend: one who had led them straight to hell, or so the Corellian ex-smuggler thought. Darth Vader stood cunningly at the opposite end of the table in a dainty, pleasantly lit dining room in Cloud City; and there the nastiest bounty hunter alive stared hungrily at Han, anticipating long-awaited revenge.

But Boba Fett was not half as important to Leia as was the dark-cloaked figure in the room. Lando repeated once more in her ear, "I'm sorry," but such an apology meant nothing to her now.

She and the Sith Lord were much passed apologies for bumping into one another.

"Sit down," urged Boba. Chewbacca groaned, his own understanding of the especially distasteful situation loud and clear. Han gave one glance at the Wookiee to shut him up. Leia proceeded toward the table in a graceful manner - much to both Lando's and Han's surprise - and quickly seated herself adjacent to Vader, who was at the head-seat. The head-mask abandoned its forward gaze and shot its focus on the woman. "You were advised to leave this place."

By now, Han had carefully secured a seat next to Leia. He was fuming at Vader upon the Sith Lord's remark. "Why don't you leave her alone, Vader?"

It had been a command. Boba hated Solo more and more for it, and claimed a chair opposite Han. "Our business is not with her. Lord Vader has need for _you_ to be an experiment. You will also serve my purposes nicely -"

"Not another word -" spat Han.

"You must be silent," Lando argued. Vader watched the exchange unfeelingly.

But so did Leia, at least temporarily. She knew not yet what would become of the new man for which she cared - the one who had accepted her even after she'd explained her mistake back on Hoth - but she remained fixated upon the one person who had turned her hope into dust and ash. That _person_ who had, for minutes, appeared to her on the Star Destroyer an actual human, one of a dark and most grievous past. And she had pitied him, yes, but such was but a former, wilted feeling now. Her vibrantly beating heart had turned to a frostbitten, cold heart.

Vader no longer meant anything to her.

Or did he?

She had chosen a seat nearest him, and as the bounty hunter and Han exchanged nasty remarks - Lando having to calm them down occasionally - she and that horrid, troubled father of hers refrained from looking directly at one another, nevertheless attempting to see the expression on one another's overcast countenances.

To snap Leia out of her dangerously addictive trance, the word "torture" had to strike her eardrums. And it had.

"The process will only take minutes," Boba was announcing. Chewie roared and tried to get up, but Han restrained his friend out of firm regard for their lives. Solo's head turned to find Leia, now awe-stricken, staring with the most concerned expression he had ever beheld upon her face. "It'll take minutes," he promised her.

 _What will? What's going on?_ questioned Leia internally. Cursing herself for having obsessed over the dark presence in the room, the woman piped up rather quietly, "What are they doing?"

"Princess, this smuggler is indebted to a Hutt in the Outer Rim, and I am in charge of his transportation."

 _I'm not "Princess" to you,_ screamed Leia inside. She retained a professional glare while making sharp eye contact with the other masked man in the room, and inquired, "Is a prelude of _torture_ necessary?"

"Wrarrouuugh!" agreed Chewbacca, nodding his head almost hysterically. Han frowned at both the Wookiee and Leia, as if they were being stupid to consider him their friend. Angry at this façade with which Solo was betraying himself, Leia blurted to the traitor across the table, "You should be proud of what you've forced your friend into, Lando."

"He is not to blame."

At last Vader had spoken; his tone had been curt, but his intent had been pure. Leia swung her head back to face him, and assumed, "You are, then. What the hell would a Hutt's wishes mean to you?"

"More than you can foresee," responded the Sith Lord. "Solo will be the test; another will be the masterpiece."

"So you're going to risk an innocent person's life for the sake of your -"

"Please, Leia -"

"Silence, your Highness!"

"Hold your tongue!" Leia interjected. Her heartbeats were hitting her chest with such intensity that she felt her entire surroundings - Han, with his dead-pan stare; Boba, his blaster in plain sight; Lando, the coward in him fully revealed at the woman's sudden lash-out - were unreal. And then there was Vader: abnormally calm and appreciative of a good episode of another's exploitation of hatred for her circumstances. He infuriated Leia most of all. Upon recognizing him to be unfeeling of her frustrations and worries, Leia emerged from her seat. It was Han's turn to shout. "Don't, Leia!"

Though he hadn't the slightest clue as to what the ex-princess had in mind: then again, neither did she. Vader remained poised and proper in the comfortable confines of his seat. Boba had since stood with his weapon on the woman; this did nothing to alarm her, however, because Leia was beginning to realize how she hated to be in such a small space, cramped and closed off from the rest of the world.

Suddenly her mind told her that she was, once again, in that callous cell on the Death Star, about to receive notice from Grand Moff Tarkin that her presence was requested for the destruction of a certain planet.

She felt so alone, so invincible…

Reaching into her pocket, the ghost discovered a power greater than that for which she could have wished: a knife, the one from the kitchen in her room there in Cloud City. Without thinking, she took it into her hand, thus revealing it to the particularly cautious Boba Fett. He raised his blaster, preparing for any sudden motion. Han was too scared to shout.

Lando finally demanded that Leia hand over the weapon. "We don't need any more trouble," he reasoned. The woman was not listening.

She approached Boba one step at a time, and the hand that held the knife shook on account of her nervousness. When Leia had finally achieved the distance of a meter from the bounty hunter, Boba fired at her: just in time for Vader - who had sensed this - to deflect the blast with his outstretched hand. Han's eyes were wide, and Lando gaped. The scare caused Chewie to exclaim his own fright.

Leia, the ghost who had figured nothing would do harm to her, continued to believe that she was not present among the action that transpired around her. Others shouted, blasters were stowed away, some got up furiously from their chairs, and two - namely Vader and his daughter whom he had once denied yet now spared - remained face-to-face, wanting to exchange nothing but their gazes toward one another.

 _Why did I protect her?_ Vader wondered continuously.


	7. His Voice

All those around her were thinking, _The fight is over! We've ended this war!_ But she - while applying mild pressure to the bandage on on her arm - couldn't stop thinking about something else. About _someone_ in particular, a scar far more meaningful than her blaster-wound would ever heal to be.

He was dying. She could feel it.

His organs were weakening, heartbeats were rare, and nothing seemed so strange to Leia as the moment of Anakin's last breath.

Leia stared at the blue Endor sky; the universe looked overwhelmingly large to her from below, so foreign...as if the war had clouded that perception of the galaxy for her, causing her to believe everything to be so _small._

A twitch in the branch below her on the ground startled the woman; it was Han, and he had returned to give her some water. Of course, he had brought himself a glass, too. Raising his, he announced, "Here's to peace."

Their glasses made a _clink,_ and Leia smiled warmly at him. But she still had her mind on Vader, and on Luke.

She had not been stricken by the news that Vader was, in fact, her father: only changed by it. It had changed her perspective of that shadowy figure of a man who had, at one time, loved. Who had married, who had wanted to become a father. _It's a shame he didn't accept until the end that he had two children rather than one,_ thought Leia sadly.

But for another reason, she felt proud.

...

"He died as Anakin Skywalker, the noble Jedi Master and father," Luke was telling her later, during the all-night victory celebration. Leia studied the wanness of her brother's face, realizing that he had also been affected by the turn in events. Specifically involving their father.

And then Leia felt like talking. "I hate to admit it, Luke, but... I was insane for a time, because of what he did. And for too long - for much too long - I feared he had no humanity in him."

"But you lost those thoughts later," Luke continued for her. His sister nodded.

Han and Lando were fast approaching them, whereupon Leia spoke quickly. "I guess I realized...somehow...that he had to have become whom he was for a reason. Something from his past turned him against himself..."

"Hey, you two," teased Lando with a chuckle, "you're disappointing everyone by straying from the party. Come and join the others."

Before Leia or Luke could explain anything, Han went up to Leia and extended his arm, wanting her to take it. "Care to dance?" he invited.

"Not at the moment," confessed the woman plainly; she turned back to Luke, who was grinning.

"You shouldn't decline his offer, sis," the Jedi advised. "After what you two have been through, I think you both deserve it."

 _Why are you doing this to me?_ Leia's expression screamed to her brother; but Luke was enjoying the look of approval on Han's face, as he took the initiative to lock arms with Leia. "Seems your brother has stuck you with me," he sighed, beaming at her. "You two can talk any time. _Now's_ the time for celebrating."

"You mean, 'for getting drunk'," corrected Leia, cringing in advance as if expecting the Corellian to playfully shove her. But he let it slide, admitting, "You know what, if you hadn't saved my body from being eternally frozen in that carbonite -"

"Han!" exclaimed Lando suddenly. "Let's not bring up the war. Come on, both of you..."

As Lando steered Han and Leia away from Luke, the young woman seized the minutest moment to connect with her brother through the Force - something she did upon instinct, and with success - and told him, gratefully: _Thank you for what you did for our father._

 _It wasn't all my effort,_ Luke responded. _He told me that you, also, helped him._ Leia turned back to locate him, but masses of Rebels and Ewoks had crowded the area behind her. Wondering whether she could communicate with Luke just once more, she closed her eyes momentarily and focused upon a sentence:

 _He always had a flare of good in him. It was manipulation and hatred that hindered it for so long._

 _Right you are._

Leia froze. The frequencies of the music died down in the world that was her head, and she felt all motion decelerate to a stop as the source of that internal voice became clear to her.

 _Father -_ she began.

Silence. _Father?_ tried Leia once more, hoping and aching and fearing all at once to hear that _voice_ in her mind. The Force was presently all she cared to reach: she had halted in her footsteps, had shut her eyes, had almost stopped breathing...

And then, her reward:

 _Never allow anything to make you forget what you have proclaimed about me, because it is true._ Anakin Skywalker's soft tone resonated perfectly now, his closer presence practically tranquilizing to Leia. She, the daughter of this man she thought she knew (perhaps she had known him for partial seconds, but Vader had prevailed to exist whenever the woman had confronted him), could not bring herself to reply. After all the arguments, the torture sessions (both direct and indirect), the interrogations, and the unpleasant encounters, Leia Organa truly felt scared to speak through the Force to this voice.

But Anakin's was a different voice, one that Luke alone had heard organically, prior to the former-Sith Lord's final exhalation. And so Leia could only wait, could only dream of the next words that he would confess to her... She thought she sensed a final message from her father, but Han and all of reality snapped right back into place and the young woman once again felt insignificant among the cheery, yet unsatisfying, congregation.

 _I love you, my daughter. Leia._

* * *

 **THE END**


End file.
